Economic Revolution

Economic Revolution

The Economic Revolution • England had a pro-business government • This was because only the wealthy and those with power could run for office – it behoved them to believe that a poor person could represent his/her constituents well. • As such many entrepreneurs from the middle class would represent their riding in parliament. • An entrepreneur– is a person who runs a business, taking all the risks in order to create a profit. • When it came to voting, only the middle class and upper class men could vote. Women, the working class and the poor did not have the franchise. • Franchise– is the right to vote.

English Parliament • English Parliament were consisted of two main parties – the Tories and the Whigs. • The Tories were made up of rich landowners – they favoured laws that would benefit landowners, property owners and factory owners. • The Whigs were made up of the middle class – these were doctors, lawyers and some business peoplethat favoured laws that would benefit the businesses in Great Britain.

English Parliament • Both parties believed in a laissez-faire policy towards the economy. Laissez-faire is a policy that believes competition between companies and self-interest would force business people to be more efficient, more effective, and produce more profit. • This increase in profit would then create a wealthy and productive country.

English Parliament • The problem – to make profits, a businessman would have to ensure they keep all their costs (their expenses) down. This included the amount of money (wages) they would pay their employees. • Since wages were kept really low, the working class was barely able to make ends meet. But this was done in thename of economic wealth and productivity.

English Parliament • Philosopher Thomas Hobbes once said, “humans follow the rules of appetite and evasion,” we go towards the things we like, and we move away from the things we do not like. • Philosopher Machiavelli once said, “the ends justify the means,” that is to say, do whatever you need to do in order to be successful. • Philosopher Charles Darwin coined the term, “survival of the fittest,” he said that those who are strong will survive and those who are weak will not.

English Parliament • These three philosophers described human behaviour to perfection – we are ultimately greedy, and do anything we can to obtain power and control, even if that means we treat people poorly. • This is what parliament did, since it was filled with the upper class and middle class who had a lot of money they just wanted to make money – no matter who would be hurt by this. • So both the Tories and the Whigs did not want a government that created rules that would hinder their success. The basic difference between these two parties was which type of business would get preferential treatment from the government.

English Parliament • It really didn’t matter who was in power (the government), business would always have the upper hand and would always be successful – it was the poor and the working class that would not reap any of the benefits from this so called “economic prosperity.” • What does this government look like to you? Does it ring a bell from past lessons/units? How so?

Textile Industry • Sheep – next to being the maker of some good pieces of steak – their wool is even more important and valuable during the Industrial Revolution. • Sheep wool, along with silk from silk worms and linen from flax, are the needed materials to make clothing. • The climate, weather and temperature in Britain made perfect conditions to have some of the best wool in the world. • The wool was so good that it was always in high demand.

Textile Industries • British colonies were able to provide Great Britain with cotton as well. • As such, businessmen in Britain were able to get access to cheap cotton, local wool and make some very impressive clothes. The only thing they needed was a better machine. • Up to the 1750’s you would need a lot of works to create the spools of thread and then you needed a few more workers to weave the threads together and create a sturdy piece of cloth. • Refer to page 136 to see how you make pieces of textile.

Textile Industries • By the time the industrial revolution came around many inventors found a way to make a machine that only needed on person to weave the thread. • John Kay in 1733 created such a device –he created a weaver by using springs andlevers to slide the loom back and forth across the threads. • This not only sped up the weaving process, but it also reduced the need of two employees down to one. • Problem was that this machine was so effective and efficient that it was tough to keep enough spools of thread on the machine without running out.

Textile Industries • In comes James Hargreaves. • In 1764 Mr. Hargreaves developed a spinner that was able to spin copious amounts of threads by using a hand-cranked wheel. • Now one can spin enough thread in the morning to make a good amount of textiles by the end of the afternoon. • He named the machine after his wife Jenny and called it the spinning Jenny.

Textile Industries • Mr. Hargreaves was a spinner, and poor. He decided to keep the invention to himself and not share it with the wealthy textile businessmen. • One day an angry mob of poor spinner broke into his house and broke the Spinning Jenny. • Forced to move away from his home, he found a partner and perfected his Spinning Jenny. He then sold it to textile businessmen for a lot of money and became a very wealthy man. • What kind of lessons can we learn from this event?

Textile Industry • After John Kay’s loom and Hargreaves Spinning Jenny, many other inventors tried to create a better produce one that would always be better than the previous generation of equipment. • Richard Arkwright developed a loom that spun threads a little tighter than the Spinning Jenny. • Samuel Compton also invented the “mule” which took the ideas from the Spinning Jenny and Arkwright’s invention and put them together into one. • Think about it – we have a PlayStation, then a PlayStation 2, then a PlayStation 3 and now a PlayStation 4. It is the same thing, just a little better then its previous generation.

Steam Machines • Britain relied heavily on coal to help create a strong economy. • The problem was a lot of the coal mines were filled with water, and you could not mine thecoal if water was in the way. • It would be to costly and inefficient to have men manually remove the water by using buckets and pulley’s. • Inventor Thomas Newcomeninvented a machine that used steam to pump the water out of the mine. • James Watt would take Newcomen’s machine and improve it by maximizing the use of steam and not losing potential energy. • Watt’s machine would eventually lead to the creation of an engine that would drive machines.

Iron and Coal • Abraham Darby understood how metals react with each other. As such he experimented with iron, and the mixture of other metals such as scrap steel, lime stone and carbon. • Darby was able to make cast iron that would eventually be used for pots and pan all the way to the creation of cast iron supports for bridges. • Because of Darby’s invention and his businesses, England would become the worlds leading producer of cast iron.

Ticket Out • What three industries flourished during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain?

Economic Revolution